The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1887-08-04

foot POCAce Ahat hiShb Nhch Ntul
home it was not to be found. and /
have not been able to find it since.
I'm almost through, sir, just one
week from the day on which paid the
money in at S,urgis', Mr.. Merriam re-
ceived letter from Colonel Penning-
ton. in which. at the end-after the
business-occurred this passage: MY
dear old fellow, when are you going to
let me hear from youP 1 haven't been
blessed with your kind remembrance,
! don't know when. ~
"When was thatp' / asked.
LAST week Tuesday, sir. y
"And you gave tho money IN at
Sturgis' counting-room whenen
The Tuesday before that sir--the
thirteenth of the present month of Sep
TENDER "
nodded for him to 90 on
After Mr.. Merriam had showed me
the letter. and told me to read that
sentence, he asked me il l Was sure
had given the money to be sent to
Colonel Pennington. You can imagine
l was indignant But didn't know
then how much I'd been suspected. /
held IN rs best could, and told him
had given the money into the hands of
the bookkeeper Damon Wadleigh.
During the afternoon Merriam :
called in at Sturgis' and -sir-O. |
can't understand it-they all-Sturgis
and Wadleigb, and all there employed
Swear that they never saw the money!
81 forgot to say, sir, that Mr. Mer-
riam asked lie if / took n receipt; and
il was when l confessed the loss of
that that my heart began to quake,
Yes, sir. they swear--all In
the counting-room-that they never
saw the money Mr. Sturgis says he
filled out Il check, as he had said he
should, on the afternoon of the 18th.
inst, and mailed It to Colonel Penning-
ton, at Joliet but nothing had been
received-so nothing had been covered
in--on the account of Merriam 81 Co y
Then, in broken accents, the young
man told me that he had been accused
of embezzlement; had been brought
before trial justice for preliminary
examination, and bound ov err to appear
before the grand,jury in October the
evidence before the Justice had been
doomed eJ most of those present as
conclusive.
There was the case. Bracket said
he had searched in vain for the receipt.
But the missing receipt was not all
Tho lifting Of the mortgage from the
house told heavily against him.
He had himself paid the money, and
the business had been done in his
name. Yet he had utterly refused to
tell where the money had come from,
and had almost tried-had fairly shed
teess-@when pressed and badgered on
that point. That the astute justice had
taken as sure sign of guilt.
l asked him If he suspected Damon
Wadleigh of having appropriated the
money to his own use. He shook his
head obviously. He knew not what
to think. He and Wadleigh had
always been most excellent friends,
though he had never been able to keep
exactly the expensive company that
Damon did. But mind YOU" he
added, II don't mean to intimate by
that that he ever lives beyond his
means.
l thought the matter over Really
and sincerely, believed my client in
nucent.
Look here" said /, as the thought
struck me; Ibid Colonel Pennington
speak, in the letter which Merriam
showed to you, OF the amount due him
from your firmPn
Il am very sure he did not, re-
piled the youth. He the Colonel
and Arnold Merriam, were college,
mates, and have been close friends
ever since My thought of the pas
sage WAS that he had missed his old
friends chatty. newsy letters.'
! had about made up my mind to
send the young man away until the
next day, that might think, and per-
haps, investigate, when the thought
occurred to me-a thought so simple
so exceedingly simpie-that it had
not found Judgment before; "What
does Colonel Pennington say about
itp''
Bracket didn't know He was very
sure the Colonel had not been written
to.
well, said /, 'let us begin at the
bottom. The money was for Colonel
Pennington. If there had been no
wrong done by anybody, he should
have received it, And / sat down
and wrote as follows, with date apd
the address at my end of the lihe.
TO COLONEL WALTER PENSrSGToN JoLrEr,
ILL: Have you received five hundred dollars
which should have been forwarded to you from
Arnold Merriam, of this place, on the 18th in
stants Answer Immediately to me.
| signed my name; gave it to Charles
Bracket babe him take it to the West
ern Union Office, and remain for an
answer,
In little more than half an hour the
young man was back, and here is what
Colonel Pennington telegraphed:
The money was paid into my own hands on
the day named-ive hundred dollars.
WALTER PESEIsGToN.
was not satisfied with that. | was
now sure that. in some way, the Colo
mel had received the money. But
howp Before made my appearance
to the accusers, | wished to be whole
footed. So l wrote another telegram,
asking the Colonel to send to me at
once, by telegraph, a full and explicit
statement of hon he had received the
money, and let it come at my expense.
This dispatch Bracket took away;
and the clock was striking six as he
came back with the answer Here it
is--the body of it:
On Tuesday, the thirteenth instant shortly
after noon, was on my way from Portland,
| Maine to N. Y, and thence home / had TO